Update Philosophy

[Spargeltarzan]

Dear Admins, Dear Community,

I would like to open a discussion about the integration of KDE neon packages on Plasma desktop.

Firstly, I really appreciate the idea of testing Plasma before releasing, especially after a new main release (5.9)

When I consult the roadmap of KDE we can see that within the first month of its release three bugfix releases will arrive. (as of today the first one)

https://community.kde.org/Schedules/Plasma_5

When I see this roadmap I would decide for myself to start with KDE 5.9.3 since the third bugfix release will be only one month after 5.9 and the fourth bugfix release is relatively late on 21.03

In a previous post you mentioned that you have started testing 5.9. Since 5.9.1 released today, I believe you decided not to deploy 5.9. Did you start testing Plasma 5.9.1 now? Or will you probably deploy Plasma 5.9 after X Weeks of testing, so maybe in one or two weeks although Plasma 5.9.2 will be released on 14.02?

I believe it would help us all when we understand how much time you take for testing and when you decide not to release.

Regarding Plasma 5.8.5 I do not fully understand the decision of blocking it. Firstly it is a bugfix release (the 5th!), I believe a bugfix release can't break much. However, I understand you have a reason for it. Hence I would like to mention this bugfix release probably broke a small number of little things (I heard of desktop icons), but it fixed many another issues. For example the DigiKam update issue what is on 5.8.4 works fully fine on 5.8.5 (on my Kubuntu machine, and even Linux Mint released 5.8.5!)

Could you also please explain us, is there a possibility to decide between Plasma 5.8.X and 5.9. after you released it? KDE 5.8 is a LTS release and will be maintained quite a long time, probably some users want to stay on it.

Probably it is impossible to make every user happy, maybe we find an approach where users can decide alone if they want to upgrade. For myself I know that I would have installed 5.8.5 (because of digikam) and I know I want start with 5.9.3. And I would like to start on the day of its release, not after one month testing when 5.9.4 is already out. Do you think it is possible to add another repository with "always the latest KDE?"


Kind Regards,
Richard

[leszek]

In a previous post you mentioned that you have started testing 5.9. Since 5.9.1 released today, I believe you decided not to deploy 5.9. Did you start testing Plasma 5.9.1 now? Or will you probably deploy Plasma 5.9 after X Weeks of testing, so maybe in one or two weeks although Plasma 5.9.2 will be released on 14.02?

We will sync with Plasma 5.9.1 as soon as it lands in neon and test this.
Some issues we discovered in 5.9.0 were fixed in 5.9.1 so we continue to test 5.9.1 and report errors upstream and work with upstream to fix them if necessary.
Rough plan also sees Plasma 5.9.3 as possible version that actually will land for users in the backports repo and as base for Maui 3.

Could you also please explain us, is there a possibility to decide between Plasma 5.8.X and 5.9. after you released it?

The current plan is to switch to Plasma 5.9 as it brings in many new features and bugfixes.
As for 5.8.x if you wish to stay on it don't activate the backports repositories.
However 5.8.4 won't be updated from our side. What you can do is of course manually add the neon-user-lts repository to get the latest and greatest of the Plasma 5.8.x. Though without testing from our side.

Probably it is impossible to make every user happy, maybe we find an approach where users can decide alone if they want to upgrade.

I think we already provide such a solution.

[Spargeltarzan]

You don't plan to update 5.8.4 at all, also not with Plasma 5.8.6? If users want to stay on KDE 5.8.X we should deactivate backport repos and add neon-user-lts instead?

Is there also a neon-repository available if users want to install 5.9.1 already?

Thank you for your detailed answer!

[leszek]

You don't plan to update 5.8.4 at all, also not with Plasma 5.8.6? If users want to stay on KDE 5.8.X we should deactivate backport repos and add neon-user-lts instead?

Thats what I wrote. So yes.

Is there also a neon-repository available if users want to install 5.9.1 already?

You can of course add the normal neon user repository which already has 5.9.1.
Though we do not recommend it as you are then basically on your own.

[starbuck]

Maui is all about relaxing and enjoying what you have, knowing uodates will keep rolling in in waves, but tested. If you want systems that are more likely to wipe what you got and leave you in tears, there are other alternatuves

[rocky7x]

Man you said it right I love Maui for not draining my eyes and allowing me to focus on productivity I've just realised that since that dreadful 5.8.0 update, things got sooo boringly stable that I already forgot how painful Linux can be Keep up the good work

[alex77]

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/Rele...l_flavours
16.04.2 lts
kernel 4.8